Food is Fuel
Aug. 11: Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
I don't have much of an intro today, because I was busy writing a long piece for my other Substack, Too Much Film School.
It's about the Olympics and documentaries, but most of all it's about the line between good and evil running through every heart. Which is something I've talked about here frequently, so I thought you might be interested in it.
Reading 1
1 Kgs 19:4-8
Elijah went a day's journey into the desert, until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath it. He prayed for death saying: "This is enough, O LORD! Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers."
He lay down and fell asleep under the broom tree, but then an angel touched him and ordered him to get up and eat. Elijah looked and there at his head was a hearth cake and a jug of water. After he ate and drank, he lay down again, but the angel of the LORD came back a second time, touched him, and ordered, "Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!"
He got up, ate, and drank; then strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb.
Have you ever been so hungry, you felt like you just couldn't move until you ate something? That's how Elijah is feeling right now.
And just like when you finally get that filling meal, Elijah... falls asleep.
So the angel wakes him up and gives him another meal. Now, Elijah finally has the fuel to get going. And he goes for forty days and nights!
The point is, this isn't a feast. It's not a happy meal. It's not dessert. The bread from heaven is meant to give us the energy to get up and do something. The meal isn't the end, it's the beginning.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
R. (9a) Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Glorify the LORD with me,
Let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
And delivered me from all my fears.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy.
And your faces may not blush with shame.
When the afflicted man called out, the LORD heard,
And from all his distress he saved him.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him and delivers them.
Taste and see how good the LORD is;
blessed the man who takes refuge in him.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
This Psalmist had fallen on hard times. He was afflicted. But God heard his prayer and saved him.
Of course he sings God's praises, as he should. But he does more, too—he goes out and invites others to join him in praising God.
All of us fall on hard times; at other times, we all find blessings from God. When we're in the latter camp, it's a good time to remind those in the former.
Reading 2
Eph 4:30—5:2
Brothers and sisters: Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption. All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.
So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.
We can never be as fully good as God is, but we can certainly try to imitate Him. Kind and compassionate, and above all, forgiving.
Jesus died for our sins, so they may be forgiven. We may never be called on to die for someone, but we can always forgive.
Alleluia
Jn 6:51
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven, says the Lord;
whoever eats this bread will live forever.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
This is a bold claim for a first century Jew to make. Anyone who thinks Jesus was too meek to stir controversy is sorely mistaken.
Gospel
Jn 6:41-51
The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven, " and they said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, 'I have come down from heaven'?"
Jesus answered and said to them, "Stop murmuring among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets: They shall all be taught by God. Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."
By calling Himself the "bread from heaven," Jesus is explicitly tying Himself to the most important story in Jewish history—the Exodus.
The crowd murmured, not coincidentally, just like the Israelites did in Exodus, when they received bread from heaven.1 They couldn't believe the Messiah would come from humble origins; they had much different expectations of a powerful ruler like David.
But David isn't the answer. No earthly power is. We have to listen to Jesus, the humble yet challenging Man who leads us to God because He also is God. We do this by eating His body and blood, under the appearance of bread and wine, and then, like Elijah did and like Paul advises, by going out into the world to love and serve our neighbor.